Excluding business users is understandable but not just personal on account customers?

I'm an On account customer myself, I spent probably twice to three times the amount than I used to on prepaid and yet while I enjoy being on the On Account MM plan it seems like the place to be is prepaid.

They try and justify it by pushing their 'You choose' plans as an alternative:

on account customers enjoy other benefits such as included minute bundles and bolt on services which they can now get with the You Choose plans.

The 'bolt on' services that us On Account users apparently 'enjoy' only apply if we get locked into a 24 month contract. You choose indeed?

Telecom only matched it for Prepay users in the first place so I guess Voda are just doing the same since Telecom have already extended it.

You feel a bit shafted being a contract customer at times, Prepay users got double topups again before Xmas which is a pretty good deal if you load a few months airtime on your phone yet contract customers got nothing..:-(

I had Vodafone try and sell me the plan the other day, the woman sounded quite surprised when I said I wasn't interested at all because of the stupid 24 month contract.

I just find the following so funny in light of what Vodafone have done. I wonder what has changed since 2001 except for the fact Vodafone are getting their arse kicked and want to lock in customers to stop churn??

press release : 1 November, 2001
Mobile customers set free
Over 86,000 mobile users will be freed from their term contracts on 1st November.

Vodafone New Zealand announced today that all of its customers on consumer term contracts will no longer be bound to the Vodafone network.

Marketing Director, Chris Taylor, said Vodafone New Zealand is changing its business after listening closely to customers.

"Customers are telling us that they want freedom to move their phone usage where they want, so we're getting rid of fixed term contracts for our consumer users and giving business users the choice.

"While we are releasing a large number of our customers from term contracts, we are also moving away from subsidising mobile phone costs. We've decided to focus our energy on creating outstanding value to our customers through our service rather than from a handset.

"We've had to throw out some of the old rules to meet customers needs. It's a fresh way of looking at the business, and an exciting time for our customers!" Mr Taylor said.

Vodafone is confident that the new way of business will have positive impacts for the company, and have announced several value-added services including:

No term contracts for consumer customers

A choice between no term contract, or a term contract and subsidised handset for business customers

All customers' calls will be charged per second after the initial 'flagfall' charge of one minute

Vodafone customers will pay a maximum of 20 cents to retrieve voice messages

The business change is part of a worldwide trend, seeing mobile networks moving away from handset subsidies and term contracts.

Yes i got that telemarketing call for " you choose" and gave them the order to chop the on account connection which embarressingly rang in a business meeting, it's a dataplan which has an incoming call bar on it but they thought thay would bend the rules, just for themselves.

I have no inerrest in vodafone now, the double-up was not offered to me and my prepay use is quite good (was all MMS pretty much as it's the cheapest way to transport 300k) , A mate got it and a free $300 phone earlier in the year so i'm a little annoyed.
my new 027 is doing me very nicely (modified from it's norm however to give much better performance of course)

Telecom Extended the 3 minute hour back in november but it was soft. I abused the heck out of the vodafone offer so no surprise. i'll hang onto my prepay just that little bit longer for those long calls.

they have the CHEEK to phone me about "excessive use" of free TXT weekends last month (cable connected phones don't help ;-) like i CARE!.

"As of 30 September 2005, Vodafone New Zealand had a customer base of 1,956,000 customers, and a 54% share of the New Zealand mobile market."

The fact they lead Telecom in growth for something like 15 quarters and have now trailed behind Telecom for 3 says they are getting their arse kicked. Going from picking up close to 75% of new connections per quarter for 4 quarters and over the past few quarters struggling to picking up 35% of all new connections to be says they are getting whipped.

Not that Vodafone really care, they still have over 50% of the NZ market.. :-)

"As of 30 September 2005, Vodafone New Zealand had a customer base of 1,956,000 customers, and a 54% share of the New Zealand mobile market."

The fact they lead Telecom in growth for something like 15 quarters and have now trailed behind Telecom for 3 says they are getting their arse kicked. Going from picking up close to 75% of new connections per quarter for 4 quarters and over the past few quarters struggling to picking up 35% of all new connections to be says they are getting whipped.

I fail to see how Vodafone are getting "whipped" as you put it. As I stated over the last year Telecom have caught up, most probably due to their early T3G implementation & $10 text promotions, but before that Telecom were getting throughly slaughtered ;-)

However, with the implementation of Vodafone's 3G Network in August, the next quarters results shall be an interesting contest indeed, speaking of which, the results should be out in a couple of weeks or so.

I fail to see how Vodafone are getting "whipped" as you put it. As I stated over the last year Telecom have caught up, most probably due to their early T3G implementation & $10 text promotions, but before that Telecom were getting throughly slaughtered ;-)

However, with the implementation of Vodafone's 3G Network in August, the next quarters results shall be an interesting contest indeed, speaking of which, the results should be out in a couple of weeks or so.

3G Coverage is still very limited sadly.... :(

Over my time of working for VF I have noticed most customers DON'T move because of $10 TXT... It's Telecom's coverage kicks VF's coverage!

I know some cool guy will try say to me "oh but I get coverage on my VF where my Telecom gets none"
- Fact is, Yes... You may... But put it all into purspective.. Telecom has better coverage over all.

I fail to see how Vodafone are getting "whipped" as you put it. As I stated over the last year Telecom have caught up, most probably due to their early T3G implementation & $10 text promotions, but before that Telecom were getting throughly slaughtered ;-)

However, with the implementation of Vodafone's 3G Network in August, the next quarters results shall be an interesting contest indeed, speaking of which, the results should be out in a couple of weeks or so.

3G Coverage is still very limited sadly.... :(

Over my time of working for VF I have noticed most customers DON'T move because of $10 TXT... It's Telecom's coverage kicks VF's coverage!

I know some cool guy will try say to me "oh but I get coverage on my VF where my Telecom gets none"
- Fact is, Yes... You may... But put it all into purspective.. Telecom has better coverage over all.

I don't think there would be many people in here that would agree with you. For every place you could name with Telecom coverage and no Voda I could name a place with Voda coverage and no Telecom coverage...In terms of % of landmass covered both networks are pretty similair.

I don't think there would be many people in here that would agree with you. For every place you could name with Telecom coverage and no Voda I could name a place with Voda coverage and no Telecom coverage...In terms of % of landmass covered both networks are pretty similair.

I'd agree with that statement. I have been to quite a few places with no/patchy CDMA and reasonable GSM signal. Other places with no GSM signal but some signal on CDMA.

And yes both networks claim 97% of New Zealands population are covered:Vodafone claims:
"We cover 97% of New Zealand's population including the most popular holiday spots."Telecom claims:
"We cover 97% of the places Kiwis work, live and play. ..."

And the reason if I was to switch over wouldn't be coverage - it would be the outstanding problems that I have with VFNZ which still have not been resolved (overcharging the main one).

I fail to see how Vodafone are getting "whipped" as you put it. As I stated over the last year Telecom have caught up, most probably due to their early T3G implementation & $10 text promotions, but before that Telecom were getting throughly slaughtered ;-)

However, with the implementation of Vodafone's 3G Network in August, the next quarters results shall be an interesting contest indeed, speaking of which, the results should be out in a couple of weeks or so.

3G Coverage is still very limited sadly.... :(

Over my time of working for VF I have noticed most customers DON'T move because of $10 TXT... It's Telecom's coverage kicks VF's coverage!

I know some cool guy will try say to me "oh but I get coverage on my VF where my Telecom gets none"
- Fact is, Yes... You may... But put it all into purspective.. Telecom has better coverage over all.

That's a weird statement coming from someone who "claims" to work for Vodafone. I agree wholeheartedly with sbiddle & cokemasters statements on coverage from both networks, they are 6 of 1 & 1/2 a dozen of the other.

As for Vodafone's 3G coverage, at launch in August they covered 18 cities/towns CBD's, which was significantly more than Telecom did at launch in November 2004. Yes, Telecom have since improved their T3G coverage, but they have also had more time to do so. It is a highly competitive market & I'm certain that Vodafone will only continue to improve their coverage & performance.

PS - I'm looking forward to the release of the next network stats, as I'm pretty sure Vodafone will crack the 2,000,000 barrier, which can only mean some damn good deals/offers will be released. :-)

I fail to see how Vodafone are getting "whipped" as you put it. As I stated over the last year Telecom have caught up, most probably due to their early T3G implementation & $10 text promotions, but before that Telecom were getting throughly slaughtered ;-)

However, with the implementation of Vodafone's 3G Network in August, the next quarters results shall be an interesting contest indeed, speaking of which, the results should be out in a couple of weeks or so.

3G Coverage is still very limited sadly.... :(

Over my time of working for VF I have noticed most customers DON'T move because of $10 TXT... It's Telecom's coverage kicks VF's coverage!

I know some cool guy will try say to me "oh but I get coverage on my VF where my Telecom gets none"
- Fact is, Yes... You may... But put it all into purspective.. Telecom has better coverage over all.

That's a weird statement coming from someone who "claims" to work for Vodafone. I agree wholeheartedly with sbiddle & cokemasters statements on coverage from both networks, they are 6 of 1 & 1/2 a dozen of the other.

As for Vodafone's 3G coverage, at launch in August they covered 18 cities/towns CBD's, which was significantly more than Telecom did at launch in November 2004. Yes, Telecom have since improved their T3G coverage, but they have also had more time to do so. It is a highly competitive market & I'm certain that Vodafone will only continue to improve their coverage & performance.

PS - I'm looking forward to the release of the next network stats, as I'm pretty sure Vodafone will crack the 2,000,000 barrier, which can only mean some damn good deals/offers will be released. :-)

Lol. But why would i sit here boasting about how much better VF is when you guys know your stuff....
I'm only speaking facts. And yes 3G will get bigger.. It is the future in mobile technology, it's just a bugger it's only CBD atm. None of my co workers live in 3G Coverage atm.. Only myself... And I prefer my V3 to my 903... Style over features any day ;)
Oh Jasjar if you were just sexy like the V3......

Telecom have the advantage that in many rural areas they can put gear in because they have existing infastructure in place (such as Castlepoint) so they can easily deploy sites. For Vodafone getting a microwave link back from there would be a very costly exercise as it has no line of sight with any existing sites.

Places I've been lately with 021 and no (or extremely poor) 027 coverage:

Is it just me or is this getting way off topic. I work for one of the companies so what ever I say people would think I was being biast. There are places where you wont get CDMA and will get GSM and places will you will get GSM and no CDMA. BOTH networks will have dodgy coverage patches. Although I must say telecom certainly have superior EVDO coverage comparied to WCDMA.